Friday, April 8th, 2022
Flyers edge Skins
By Gary R. Rasberry
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Emerson Bruns touches home plate as St. Henry catcher Leah Lefeld goes to the ball. The run was the only one of the game as the Flyers won a 1-0 pitchers' duel.
ST. HENRY - Sometimes, one run is all a team needs.
A first-inning run by Marion Local held up as Ashlyn Bohman outdueled Carlee Rethman and the Flyers opened Midwest Athletic Conference softball play with a 1-0 win over the Redskins at the Wally Post Athletic Complex on Thursday.
Bohman allowed just three walks and one hit, a single by Lauren Robinette in the fourth inning, and the Redskins got three runners on via errors in a 113-pitch outing.
"Heckuva job by Ashlyn on the mound," said Marion coach Mindy Feasel of Bohman, who also struck out 10 batters. "Awesome."
Rethman was equally impressive in taking the hard-luck loss. Rethman scattered three hits, did not walk a batter and struck out eight.
"Carlee pitched a great game. She does well for us," said St. Henry coach Ashley Knapke. "We had too many left on base."
"She was throwing something we couldn't hit," said Feasel.
The lone run came early in the first as Bohman singled and Olivia DeMange advanced courtesy runner Emerson Bruns with a groundout down the first baseline. Allison Dirksen then grounded hard to third, with the throw to first being wild and allowing Bruns to score the run.
After that, the Flyers had few chances to come up with insurance runs. Only two more batters were able to reach either second or third in the game, with the best chance coming in the sixth when DeMange reached third before Rethman got a strikeout to end the threat.
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Ashlyn Bohman scattered one hit and struck out 10 to lead Marion Local to a MAC win over St. Henry.
Meanwhile, Bohman was on point from the start, retiring the first eight batters, five by strikeout, before Lauren Thieman drew a two-out walk in the third. Bohman promptly got another strikeout to end the inning.
The Redskins' big chances to get a runner across came in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, St. Henry had the bases loaded with one out, only to have Bohman induce a pop-out to Mya Knapke and then strike out Leah Lefeld to end the inning. In the fifth, Thieman was at third and Rileigh Baumer was at first with one out before a fly to right was followed by a fielder's choice to force out Thieman at third and end another threat.
"Some nights, you just can't find the gap," said Knapke. "You have to keep battling through."
After Robinette reached on an error in the bottom of the sixth for St. Henry, Bohman retired the final five batters to close out the win.
"Kudos to St. Henry. They put the ball in play," said Feasel. "We just came up with the plays."
"Props to Ashlyn. She got up in the count right away and had us guessing," said Knapke. "She did a good job out there."
Both teams are scheduled to play doubleheaders on Saturday. Marion Local will be home for Elida while St. Henry will host Eaton.
